Second Book of Maccabees 13

¹ In the year one hundred and forty-nine Judas and his men discovered that Antiochus Eupator was advancing in force against Judaea,

² and with him Lysias his tutor and vizir; he had moreover a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots fitted with scythes.

³ Menelaus sided with them, and with great duplicity kept encouraging Antiochus, not for the welfare of his own country but in the hope of being confirmed in office.

⁴ But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against the guilty wretch, and when Lysias made it clear to the king that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, Antiochus gave orders for him to be taken to Beroea and there put to death by the local method of execution.

⁵ In that place there is a tower fifty cubits high, filled with ash, with a circular construction sloping steeply down from all sides towards the ashes.

⁶ If anyone is convicted of sacrilegious theft or notoriously guilty of certain other crimes, they take him up to the top and thrust him down to perish.

⁷ In such a manner was the renegade fated to die; Menelaus had not even the privilege of burial.

⁸ Deserved justice, this; since he had committed many sins against the altar whose fire, whose very ashes were holy, it was in ashes that he met his death.

⁹ The king, then, was advancing, his mind filled with barbarous designs, to give the Jews a demonstration of far worse things than anything that had happened under his father.

¹⁰ When Judas heard of this he ordered the people to call day and night upon the Lord, now if ever, for this once at least, to come to the help

¹¹ of those who were in peril of being deprived of the Law, their fatherland and the holy Temple, and not to allow the people, just when they were beginning to breathe again, to fall into the power of the blaspheming pagans.

¹² When they had all, as one man, obeyed his instructions and had made their petitions to the merciful Lord, weeping, fasting and prostrating themselves for three days continuously, Judas spoke words of encouragement and told them to keep close to him.

¹³ After separate consultation with the elders he resolved not to wait for the king’s army to invade Judaea and take possession of the city, but to march out and bring the whole matter to a decision with the help of God.

¹⁴ Leaving the outcome to the creator of the world, and exhorting his soldiers to fight bravely to the death for the laws, the Temple, the city, their country and their way of life, he halted his army near Modem.

¹⁵ Leaving his men with is the watchword ‘Victory from God’, he made a night attack on the king’s pavilion with a picked band of the bravest young men. Inside the camp he destroyed about two thousand, and his men cut down the largest of the elephants with its driver;

¹⁶ in the end they filled the whole camp with terror and confusion before withdrawing in triumph.

¹⁷ Dawn was just breaking as this was brought to an end, through the protection of the Lord watching over Judas.

¹⁸ The king, having had a taste of Jewish daring, now tried to attack their is positions strategically.

¹⁹ He advanced on Bethzur, a strong fortress of the Jews, but was repulsed, and so checked and worsted.

²⁰ Judas sent in to the garrison what they needed,

²¹ but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, supplied the enemy with secret information; the man was identified, arrested, and dealt with.

²² For the second time the king parleyed with the garrison of Bethzur; he offered and accepted pledges of amity, retired, then attacked Judas and his men, but came off worst.

²³ He was then told that Philip, left in charge of affairs at Antioch, had made a desperate move. He was stunned by this, opened negotiations with the Jews, capitulated, and swore to abide by all reasonable conditions. He reached an agreement, offered sacrifice, honoured the Temple, and made generous gifts to the Holy Place.

²⁴ He received Maccabaeus kindly, then left Hegemonides behind as military commissioner from Ptolemais to the territory of the Gerrenians,

²⁵ and went to Ptolemais. The inhabitants of the place disapproved of the treaty; they voiced their resentment and wanted to annul its articles.

²⁶ Lysias mounted the rostrum and made a persuasive defence of the articles which convinced and calmed them, and so won their good will. He then withdrew to Antioch. So much for the episode of the king’s offensive and retreat.